San Marcos Costco ready to start 6-month closure

SAN MARCOS  Sunday is the last day to stock up at the San Marcos Costco before the store closes while a new, larger warehouse is built nearby.

The 134,000-square-foot warehouse on Center Drive just north of state Route 78, which opened as Price Club in 1984, will be replaced by a 148,000-square-foot store with a gas station.

Costco bought a nearby Harley-Davidson property and two acres from the city for the expansion.

Mario Omoss, Costco vice president for San Diego, said the company has been able trim a couple of months off the demolition and construction schedule. Omoss said he expects the closure now will last about six months, rather than eight or nine.

He said closing the store for the rebuilding is saving more than 1,000 truckloads of debris going to a landfill. The concrete walls and floors of the old Costco will be crushed on site and the material will be used in the new construction.

About 300 Costco employees were reassigned to other stores for the construction, he said. No one was laid off.

Omoss said Costco pharmacy members were notified about the closure and given the option of having their prescriptions transferred to the nearest location, such as Carmel Mountain Ranch or Vista.